Love Tennis and Yumiko Miura

"Playing ball in the rain?!" Chiyo was shocked, as if the protagonist of Pokémon encountered a strong enemy that could restrain him, and he had no other Pokémon in his hands.

"It started raining while we were fighting, there was nothing I could do." Zhixian spread his hands, "But the rain stopped soon after."

"...Wow, isn't that a bit too dedicated?"

"Playing in the rain is different from playing in the sun. It's a different experience if I have to say."

"So did you win?"

"The score is won."

"I don't understand you tennis players...ah, it's time. I'll go serve porridge to Nozaki-kun~" Chiyo looked at the time and ran to the kitchen happily.

Zhixian looked at Chiyo's back and smiled.

"I cared about more than just winning or losing in that game."

66. Send an email

After returning home, Yumiko successfully fooled Mr. and Mrs. Miura with the cooperation of Yuigahama. Mrs. Miura got the new clothes she had ordered and happily took Mr. Miura to try them on.

So the crisis, which was not a big deal, passed just like that. After getting the phone, Yumiko spent the whole night replying to messages. Whether it was from Hayama or Ebina, she replied to each one one by one.

Although she types very fast on the nine-key phone, it is very tiring for her fingers to keep typing, not to mention that she is still doing a lot of repetitive work - although the explanations are similar, the specific explanations will still vary from person to person.

For example, just explain briefly about the Ministry of Revenue, and thank the other party for coming out to see her so late at night.

With someone like Hayama and Ebina having such a close relationship, there was no need for much explanation. After all, such intelligent people knew exactly what to ask and what not to ask. They also knew that someone of this level of relationship wouldn't intentionally hide anything, and they would explain when it was time. Furthermore, with such a large-scale incident, she would be doing a disservice to her friends if she didn't explain clearly.

So Yumiko was actually replying to those who had somehow gotten wind of the news. If someone specifically showed concern for you, even if they weren't close, you should at least reply, right? As the saying goes, don't hit someone who smiles.

So that night, Yumiko and Yuigahama chatted while also replying to messages on Line.

As she was replying, Yumiko suddenly realized that she didn't seem to have any contact with Zhixian on Line. She only had an email address and a mobile phone number.

Because Line wasn't very popular before, she and Zhixian mostly communicated via email or phone, and they met almost every day, so there was no need to chat on the phone.

but......

"You can do whatever you want, Yumiko. It'll be fine. If you have any questions, feel free to call me."

"Can't we fight if there's nothing wrong?"

"Yumiko, you can call me anytime, just like before."

Thinking of the conversation between the two before they parted, Youmiko couldn't help but raise the corners of her mouth.

She exited the Line interface and brought up the email editing interface, setting the recipient to Zhixian and the subject to none.

Yumiko hesitated again with her fingers on the phone keyboard. She suddenly didn't know what to send.

"What's wrong, Yumiko?" Yuigahama looked up and asked when she noticed that the typing sound on Yumiko's keyboard had stopped.

"I want to send a text message to Zhixian, but I don't know what to send." Youmiko answered subconsciously.

Then she saw the fiery light in Yuigahama's eyes—love detective Fujiwara Yui was online.

For some reason, Yumiko imagined a pink-haired girl with a bow on her head, waving a detective hat at her and singing something like, "Even if my IQ is 3, leave it all to me!"

That silly and cute look is indeed similar to Yuigahama's, but it feels like Yui on my side is a little more silly, as cute as a stupid dog.

"Just ask him if he's home!" Yuigahama suggested, "Open up the conversation."

"Okay." After hesitating for a moment, the urge to send an email took over, so Youmiko edited an email asking Zhixian whether he had returned home and sent it.

Ding ding! (I don’t know how to describe the sound of a flip phone receiving an email, so I’ll just make do with it.)

"Oh, I replied to the email." Youmiko saw that the email address was from Zhixian.

"Isn't that an instant reply?" Yuigahama was also very excited. Her love detective intuition told her that Zhixian was definitely interested in Yumiko. "What did he reply?"

"He said he was on his way home and had just returned from Nozaki's house."

"Nozaki?" The tall boy of 190+cm tall flashed through Yuigahama's mind.

"Nozaki had a fever today, so he went to visit Nozaki," Yumiko explained.

"I see." Yuigahama nodded to show that she understood.

"So what should I post next?" Yumiko fretted again. After all, after asking if the other person was home and they'd replied "On their way home," she couldn't just reply "Be safe," could she? That would completely end the conversation. What was the point? Replying "Be safe" would be like a conversation killer.

"Hmm..." Yuigahama also thought, "How about asking about Nozaki's situation?" There was no other way, the first priority now was to continue the conversation.

"That's all." Yumiko had no idea, so she sent an email to ask about Nozaki's situation.

Not long after, Zhixian replied that he had given Nozaki some porridge and medicine to drink at night, and he would probably be fine tomorrow.

So Yumiko was once again troubled about what to post.

But she didn't have time to worry because she received another email from Zhixian.

"We got caught in the rain yesterday. To be on the safe side, it's best to drink a cup of Isatis root or cold medicine before going to bed."

"Wow! That's so thoughtful! Yumiko Tachibana-san is definitely not a straight man!"

"..." Youmiko was speechless. After all, in her opinion, Zhixian was never a straight man. On the contrary, he was a man who understood girls' hearts very well.

However, she really didn't expect Zhixian to do such a suffocating thing as throwing the love letter given to him by a girl directly into the trash can.

It’s not that she can’t understand Zhixian’s fear of trouble, but Youmeko felt that throwing the love letter was a bit too much. Since she had never asked about this matter, she didn’t know if there was any inside story.

She had heard rumors that Zhixian was grumpy when he woke up—it was common knowledge that Zhixian was grumpy when he woke up. Of course, this was a common knowledge in Sobu.

Yumiko picked up her phone, quickly replied to the email, then threw it down and got out of bed.

"Where are you going, Yumiko?" Yuigahama was confused.

"Make a cup of Isatis root." Youmiko opened the door and walked out without looking back, and then the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs was heard.

"......" This is too fast, but this way I can take a photo and email it.

The love detective is still using her IQ3 brain to think about how to assist.

downstairs.

"Mom, do we have Isatis root at home?" Yumiko asked Mrs. Miura who was watching TV.

"What's wrong, Yumiko? Do you have a cold? Or a fever? Where do you feel uncomfortable? Do you want to go to the hospital?" Before Mrs. Miura could reply, Mr. Miura couldn't sit still anymore. He simply ignored his favorite show on the TV screen.

"...It's just a little stuffy nose. It's not as exaggerated as you say, Dad." Yumiko was speechless at her father's exaggerated behavior. She was fine during dinner, so how could there be a problem just two hours later?

"Yumiko, don't pay attention to your father. He is just making a big deal out of nothing." While Mr. Miura was holding his daughter and asking about her well-being, Mrs. Miura had already found the isatis root and prepared hot water and a cup.

"Would you like to make a cup too, Yui-chan?"

"Yui is fine, I'll pour her a glass of milk."

So the mother and daughter ignored Mr. Miura and went to the kitchen to heat the milk.

Mr. Miura was left alone, feeling so relieved that his daughter was alright.

Extra: The First Doubles (Part 1)

"Children, today's class is doubles!" announced a male teacher in his early 20s, tennis racket in hand, flanked by a female teacher in a pure white tennis skirt. "And this time it's mixed doubles!"

"Teacher, I think I am very strong and I don't need girls to hold me back!" Immediately, a curious child raised his hand in response.

"You're talking nonsense! You couldn't even beat XX-chan (a girl, name is not important) in singles a few days ago!"

"Hehe, that was because I gave in to her! A good man doesn't fight with a woman!" The little boy was quite eloquent and even made a face in response.

"Everyone, be quiet." The male teacher clapped his hands, holding his racket under his arm. "Because we have an odd number of boys and girls here, we can't practice men's and women's doubles today, so we have to play mixed doubles today."

"Also, boys, don't look down on your partners just because they are girls! You have to cooperate with each other to win, okay?" The female teacher also joined in and gave the boys earnest advice.

"Oh, right, there's something I forgot to tell you all." The male teacher slapped his head, "There will be an elimination match after this mixed doubles practice. We've prepared some generous prizes for everyone!"

"Ding, ding, ding!" the female teacher pulled out a pair of tennis rackets. "These are Yonex tennis rackets! They're custom-made! They're so comfortable to swing!"

YONEX, founded in Japan in 1946, is a world-renowned manufacturer of badminton rackets and a global leader in golf, tennis, and badminton equipment.

After saying this, to prove her point, the female teacher took one of the rackets and swung it in the air a few times.

"Then everyone, form your own teams!" the male teacher announced. "Once you've formed a team, remember to come and register with the teacher!"

In order to get that racket that looked very cool, everyone put aside their prejudices and invited partners.

Little Yumiko also liked that racket very much and she wanted to get it very much.

But she didn't want to lose face and ask someone to be her partner. She was the strongest girl in the tennis class. Teaming up with her basically meant victory, so she was waiting for the boys' invitation.

What puzzled her, however, was that almost no boys invited her to play doubles, despite her being the strongest among the girls, considered number one. One boy did try to invite her, but because he was a beginner and too weak, Yumiko, hoping to get the racket, refused.

Gradually, there were fewer and fewer people left alone, which made Youmiko a little panicked because she found that the stronger boys had found partners.

Finally, the female teacher came to Yumiko while counting the number of people.

"Huh? Yumiko-chan hasn't found a partner yet?"

"Yeah." Xiao Youmiko nodded.

"Are there any boys who haven't formed a team yet? Are there any girls here?"

As a result, no one responded.

"It's so weird." The male teacher touched the back of his head and began to count them one by one.

"I'm sorry, teacher, I'm late."

"Ah! It's Zhixian! That's the correct number of people." Seeing this, the male teacher wrote Zhixian's name and Yumiko's together, "Then Zhixian-kun will be in the same group with Yumiko-chan!"

"Ah?" Zhixian was late and didn't know what the class was about.

"We're going to play mixed doubles today. Zhixian's partner is Youmeko-chan. You've got to get along well with her!" The female teacher pulled Youmeko to Zhixian's side.

"Yumiko Miura." Little Yumiko introduced herself reluctantly.

"Tachibana Zhixian."

The two shook hands symbolically and then let go.

"Let me be frank upfront. I don't expect you to play well. Just try not to hold me back, okay, newbie?" In Xiao Youmei's opinion, this boy who had just been in the class for a few days had no special qualities at all. He just had to play basketball in an average way.

Considering that boys like to show off and act cool in front of girls, Xiao Youmeiko warned Zhixian.

"I will cooperate with you." Zhixian was not angry, but took out his tennis racket and started warming up.

Xiao Youmiko glanced at his tennis bag and found it was HEAD. Almost everyone was familiar with the big check mark on the sneakers.

HEAD, founded in Austria in 1950, is a world-leading sportswear manufacturer known as "Synonymous with Tennis." Since 1994, HEAD has been the official manufacturer of ATP balls, rackets, and bags, and sponsors the Tennis Masters Cup (TMC) and the ATP Masters Series (AMS).

I don’t know how good his ball skills are, but his equipment seems pretty good, Youmeko thought to herself.

She really didn't know much about this new boy, after all, boys and girls were usually trained separately.

However, she hadn't heard anyone say that this new guy was very strong. Instead of having unrealistic expectations of a partner she didn't know well, she might as well work harder.

The rules of doubles weren't difficult to understand. Regardless of their tennis proficiency, the students in this class were at least very familiar with the rules. There were also occasional doubles matches, so the students were no strangers to doubles. The class even had fixed doubles pairs.

However, this was their first time playing mixed doubles, so the students were looking forward to it while also feeling a little nervous due to the novelty.

After the warm-up, the teacher announced the order of the battle.

Because Youmeizi and Zhixian's combination was the last one, they directly faced the first group to be determined, and the other groups would also proceed simultaneously.

Assigned a partner like Zhixian, Yumiko felt her chances of taking first place were slim, but she still clung to a glimmer of hope. What if the other two didn't work together? What if the other teacher made a mistake? If she could only minimize her mistakes, wouldn't she have a chance of winning?

"Listen carefully! You must cooperate with me!" Yumiko, who had won the serve by spinning her racket, warned Zhixian, "Don't act on your own!"

"Okay, I understand." Zhixian replied indifferently.

"Then keep going." Yumiko waved her hand and went to the net. The first serving game was Zhixian's.

Zhixian walked to the baseline with the net in hand, getting into position to serve.

Extra: The First Doubles (Part 2)

Zhixian swung his racket to serve.

"OUT!" shouted the guest student from the corner.

Yumiko clicked her tongue but didn't get angry. It was normal to make a serve error, after all, it was the first serve of the entire game.

Zhixian took the tennis ball, adjusted it and served the second ball.

"OUT!"

"15:0"